The T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 4G Laptop Stick ($99.99 with a two-year contract) is the best (and right now the only) way to get online with T-Mobile's newly activated HSPA+ 42 network. 42Mbps is a mighty fast number, but it's also not quite in touch with reality. Some head-to-head testing in New York City showed that Verizon and its ultra-fast 4G LTE network have nothing to worry about, at least not yet. Still, the Rocket 3.0 is your best bet for a T-Mobile cellular modem right now, as it supports T-Mobile's fastest, expanding network.

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Design, Software, and Data Plans
Made by ZTE, the Rocket 3.0 is nearly identical in look and size to its predecessor, the WebConnect Rocket 2.0 (3.5 stars), as well as its competitor, the T-Mobile Jet 2.0 4G Laptop Stick ($29.99, 4 stars). It's a rounded, 1.1-ounce, medium-sized USB stick (1.1 by 3.4 by .5 inches HWD), made entirely of soft-touch plastic. It comes clad in black, but you also get interchangeable blue and purple faceplates. The SIM card and microSD memory card slots are housed under the back cover, which is easy to slip off. The built-in microSD card reader worked fine, and I was able to use my 32GB SanDisk card without a hitch.

The USB connection port tucks neatly into the modem's body, though I found it tricky to flip out with my thumb. Once connected, the modem can swivel 180 degrees, which makes for a good fit with most any computer. Unfortunately, there's no external antenna port, and the status light on top of the modem only shows if you are connected, but not to what network.

The modem works with T-Mobile's connection software for Windows and Macs. I had no issue connecting in Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.6.
T-Mobile's coverage has been expanding steadily, and the carrier claims that it currently covers over 200 million Americans with HSPA+ (which supports theoretical download speeds of up to 21Mbps down). The Rocket 3.0 is future-proof, at least for the near future, in that it also supports T-Mobile's newly-activated HSPA+ 42 network. T-Mobile says this network will be activated for 140 million Americans by mid-year.

The carrier has a number of service plans for the Rocket 3.0, each of which comes with free unlimited Web access at T-Mobile hotspots. $29.99/month gets you a 200MB limit, which is very low. At the very least, I would pony up the extra $10 for the $39.99/month 2GB limit. $49.99/month gets you 5GB, while $84.99/month buys 10GB. While these costs are in line with other carriers, they are too expensive to consider the Rocket 3.0 for everyday home use.

Instead of charging (admittedly high) overage rates if you exceed your data cap like other carriers do, T-Mobile instead allows you to continue using the device for free, albeit it at some seriously throttled speeds. Whereas your average speed may be around 4Mbps down over a normal 4G connection, throttled speeds will bring you down to .1Mbps and lower, rendering the modem just barely functional.

Performance, HSPA+, and Conclusions
I tested the Rocket 3.0 against a Jet 2.0 on T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 system and a Pantech UML290 on Verizon's 4G LTE network ($49.99, 4 stars) in twelve locations in Manhattan and Queens, New York. I downloaded Web pages using curl, and ran the speed tester at speedtest.net. Speeds on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network were solid overall, but no match for Verizon's smoking 4G LTE. On average, download speeds on the Rocket were about 4.1Mbps down as compared to the Jet's 3.7Mbps. But upload speeds were equal on both modems, at 1.2 Mbps up.

The Rocket achieved a much higher peak download speed of 10.5Mbps as compared to the Jet's 5.8, though once again upload speeds were too close to call a winner. These are pretty good speeds, but they are nowhere near the theoretical 42Mbps promised by T-Mobile. They were also no match for the speeds on Verizon's 4G LTE network. Verizon's UML290 was the clear winner of the day, with average download speeds of 9.1Mbps and uploads of 4.7Mbps.

While T-Mobile's newly activated HSPA+ 42 network should have allowed for significantly higher speeds on the Rocket than on the Jet, I'm going to assume the network was not yet fully running where I was testing. Hopefully we'll begin to see improved numbers as T-Mobile continues to activate its enhanced network throughout more spots across the nation.

Better speeds or not, the T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 4G Laptop Stick is the only cellular modem that can access T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network, so it's the one you should get. The Jet 2.0 may be a little less expensive up front, but it's also stuck running on an older network. The T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot ZTE MF61 ($79.99, 4 stars) allows you to wirelessly connect up to 5 devices at once, though speeds are a bit slower than the Jet 2.0, and it also does not support HSPA+ 42. If you're looking to get ahead of the network curve on T-Mobile, the Rocket 3.0 is your best choice right now.

About the Author

Alex Colon is the managing editor of PCMag's consumer electronics team. He previously covered mobile technology for PCMag and Gigaom.
Though he does the majority of his reading and writing on various digital displays, Alex still loves to sit down with a good, old-fashioned, paper and ink book in his free time. (Not that there's anything wrong wit... See Full Bio

T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 4G Laptop S...

T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 4G Laptop Stick

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